While international investors smile, Saint-Barth embodies a fascinating paradox: a haven for the ultra-rich, yet unable to house its own residents or the workers who keep its palaces alive. Report from Gustavia
3 Mio
Sale price of 56 m² studio in Saint-Barhélémy
2017
Hurricane Irma devastated the island that year
70%
Percentage increase in real estate prices over the past 10 years
It is a system designed to attract the wealthy, not to protect local families
A local building contractor
The tiny island of Saint-Barthélemy, in the French West Indies, sees its system—fueled by generous taxation policies designed to attract wealth—confronted with a severe housing crisis and a strong risk of depopulation and uprooting of its inhabitants. While international investors are thriving, Saint Barth reflects a striking contradiction: a sanctuary for the ultra-wealthy, it can no longer house the locals or the workers who keep its palaces running. As global fortunes treat themselves to yachts and villas sometimes exceeding €60 million each, part of the staff ends up juggling temporary contracts, sharing a single room, or leaving altogether for lack of a roof.
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A Paradise Turned Paradox
Some postcards lose their shine from overexposure. Saint-Barthélemy, a chic speck of the French Caribbean, is the perfect example: a tiny 24 km² island, jewel box of the ultra-rich, where villas spring up like mushrooms after rain—yet the people who build or maintain them struggle to find a place to live. What was meant to be paradise has turned into paradox.
A visitor arriving on the island is struck by the subdued elegance of Gustavia: luxury boutiques, privatized beach clubs, and yachts moored in the harbor. But just beyond the main streets, the contrast is brutal. Behind the rosé-soaked beach clubs, the endless rows of yachts, and the chic storefronts lies a rare intensity of social crisis. Here, a single room rents for more than a three-room Paris apartment. There, a 56 m² studio is listed at three million euros before even being built.
“My son sleeps on a boat with his girlfriend because they can’t afford to live on land, even though they both work,” says Jean, who manages several properties for metropolitan owners. A young architect, who has lived and worked for ten years with her partner out of a studio-office and prefers to remain anonymous, confirms: “With property prices rising so fast, I don’t know how much longer I’ll last.”
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